MAFIA BOSSES - The Box Set: An Enemies to Lovers Trilogy

by Chloe Fischer

  There was a sincerity to her words and Marco grinned at the almost embarrassed expression on her face.

  “Me neither,” he replied truthfully. “I guess you just can’t fight attraction sometimes.”

  She gazed at him, a grateful look in her big blue eyes, but he could see worry there too.

  “Sofia,” he offered, nearing her. “I don’t really do one-night stands. I’d like to see you again.”

  Her eyes seemed to darken and brighten simultaneously as she nodded.

  “Yeah?”

  “Tomorrow night?”

  She visibly swallowed and nodded.

  “That sounds good,” she almost whispered.

  Marco brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she assured him, turning to pull open the fire door leading back onto the fourth floor but he couldn’t shake the sense that she regretted what they had just done.

  You’re letting your suspicious nature cloud your judgement, he told himself. She’s a good girl who’s overwhelmed with everything that’s happened over the past couple days. Don’t harass her.

  She paused at the door to her apartment and turned to look at him, glancing down almost shyly.

  “Tomorrow then?” she asked, leaning against the door, her arms against her back.

  He offered her a smile and leaned forward to kiss her mouth softly.

  “Arrivederci, bella.”

  “Thank you for dinner and…everything.”

  Marco felt a fission of pleasure.

  “Prego. I enjoyed myself too.”

  She nodded and unlocked the door to the unit and Marco waited until she was safely inside before turning to saunter off down the hallway.

  Heat still filled his body but Marco knew it had nothing to do with the Miami night and everything to do with Sofia Morano.

  Chapter Eight

  Her dark sunglasses blocked the light bouncing off the channel as Andrea waited nervously for Draggan to show.

  It had been a week and a half since she had stormed into his office.

  The previous night, she had returned home from another date with Marco and found a note slipped under her door.

  “What’s that?” he asked as she read it.

  “The super. He’s coming to fix the leak in the toilet tomorrow.”

  And that was precisely what the note read, but it was a pre-arranged code between her and Draggan.

  As soon as Marco left, she pulled out the burner phone for more complete instructions.

  the text read.

  Andrea stifled a sigh and glanced at Sofia’s cell phone.

  It was ten after two already and each second she spent sitting on the bench added to her intense anxiety.

  “You haven’t been checking in.”

  She jumped and gasped, spinning her head to look at Draggan.

  “There’s nothing to check in for,” she replied, stilling her rapidly beating heart. “I don’t know anything yet.”

  “Are you in with the Capreses?”

  The question filled her with a renewed sense of dread.

  Well, Marco is in me…sometimes three times a night, her traitorous mind quipped, but she wisely held her tongue.

  “Kind of.”

  “Kind of? What does that mean? You’ve been undercover for over a week and – “

  “Hey!” she snapped, not appreciating his tone. “You’re the one who told me this could take time. What’s with the about face?”

  Instantly, his intense expression relaxed and he gave her a quick smile.

  “You’re right. I’m just on edge. I wish you would do your nightly check ins.”

  “Why should I have to?” she asked, the frustration she had been holding onto growing as she spoke. “I thought you had eyes and ears on me at all times.”

  The lie was obvious now, and not just because she had thoroughly searched her apartment. There was no way that Draggan wouldn’t know what was happening between her and Marco if she was being monitored.

  It was as if the FBI agent had just willy-nilly plucked her out of nowhere to throw her inside the Caprese family for shits and giggles.

  Something strange is going on here but I can’t find out without risking my cover.

  Draggan cast her a sidelong look and exhaled deeply.

  “We couldn’t risk wiring you or your apartment or the restaurant, so we didn’t,” he said simply and Andrea’s eyes bulged in surprise.

  “What the hell?” she yelled, and Draggan’s face went pale.

  “Keep your voice down!” he hissed but Andrea had already leapt to her feet.

  “What do you mean you didn’t – “

  She stopped yelling abruptly when she realized there were a dozen sets of eyes on her. Slowly, she sank back onto the bench, shifting her gaze downward until the passersby continued on their way.

  “You sent me in blind?” she hissed, heated anger rising through her body. “So, you didn’t even know what happened to me that first night then, did you?”

  “I did,” Draggan insisted.

  “How?” she spat. “How could you possibly have known what happened to me?”

  “Just because I don’t have tech on you, doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes on you.”

  The words sent a chill through her as she tried to understand the implications of what he was saying.

  Has he seen Marco and I together? Why do I care if he has? The idea is to get close to him, isn’t it? That was why I was sent in.

  But Andrea didn’t want Draggan to know about Marco, not yet. And she wasn’t even sure why…

  Not until I have something for him, she tried to justify, but she knew it was much more than that. The time she had been spending with the capo was leading to something she had not anticipated.

  And jumping his bones in the stairwell had not been part of the plan either, but in that moment, after the dinner and the sizzling connection she knew they were both feeling, she hadn’t been able to stop herself. She had a feeling that Marco wasn’t going to try to start anything sexual with her that night. It was strange, but she almost felt like he was too moral to try taking advantage of her that way. Since when are mobsters moral? she asked herself scathingly.

  At first, she had lied and told herself that she had done it for the job. But that didn’t make her feel any better. She soon realized that she didn’t care. Whatever she felt for Marco defied reason, as if her actions were genuinely not her own and belonged to Sofia.

  Marco was breaking down whatever guards she had constructed going into the assignment, making her feel something for him despite her better judgement.

  It was clear that Marco was protective of her and the idea that he had hurt her cousin was almost impossible to accept.

  But what would he do if he found out she was a cop, that she was using him for information? He is a mobster, after all. His loyalties lie with the family, don’t they?

  There were a lot of “what ifs” and speculation dancing through Andrea’s mind, but her immediate concern was not Marco Sardelli, no matter how much he seemed to consume her thoughts those days.

  “I don’t know what the hell that means, Draggan, but you better start fucking explaining. How can you have eyes on me?”

  He stared at her, his mouth pulling in at the corners slightly.

  “It’s changing you. Being under,” he muttered. “You’re not the same girl I met in Kovaks’ office.”

  She glared at him, even though the statement filled her with a particular sense of pride.

  “I’m a different person, remember? An unprotected patsy who’s going to get herself killed.”

  “You’re not going to get yourself killed if you stick to the script, Andrea.”

  Sofia, she thought automatically and a strange pang of worry shot through her.

  God, he was right. She was becoming Sofia – and not just because it was part of the dangerous game she was
playing. She was starting to really like Sofia – and really like what Sofia liked…or rather, whom Sofia liked. And Sofia Morano was the woman who Marco knew. He didn’t know Andrea Benito.

  He would hate Andrea Benito, in her sweats and owl glasses. The woman he cares for is a fashionista, a debutante from Virginia.

  “I’m waiting,” Andrea snarled, folding her arms over her chest as she glared at Draggan. “Tell me how you have eyes on me.”

  He sighed heavily as if she was asking him to euthanize his dog.

  “You are not currently our only undercover working in the family right now,” he told her and she balked.

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means I have another operative working with the family, someone who is close and can keep an eye on you.”

  “Who?!” she demanded.

  “I can’t tell you that,” Draggan muttered, rising. But Andrea grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “You can’t tell me? But he can know who I am?”

  “That’s right.”

  “That’s bullshit!” she snapped. “I made detective in record time after graduating the academy. As a woman. I have a ninety-six percent collar rate and – “

  “You don’t need to sell me on your merits, Andrea. I read your file,” he told her blandly.

  “And yet you continue to treat me like every other Denisovan dickhead at the precinct.”

  “Andrea, don’t be difficult. We knew it was a risk sending you in to begin with and – “

  “You keep saying ‘we’ but you seem to be a one-man show here, Draggan.”

  His head whipped around and his eyes turned icy as he glared at her.

  “What are you implying?” he asked, his voice a low growl. “Are you suggesting something improper?”

  Andrea’s back tensed as she realized she had struck a massive nerve with her handler.

  Back off. Upsetting him is not a smart move, no matter how shady you think he is. Obviously, he put you in here because he needs something. Bide your time…if you can.

  “Maybe I should have listened to Kovaks. You can’t handle this,” he snarled. “I should have realized that the first day you were under.”

  Apprehension shot through her body and she leapt from the bench.

  He can’t pull me out. Not yet.

  Alarm flared within her as she wondered if her concern was professional or personal.

  But it didn’t matter. She had to placate Draggan before he decided to yank her.

  “Wait!” she cried, trying to keep the desperation from her voice.

  “What?”

  “I can handle this,” she insisted. “I’m – I’m just under stress because I’m eager to get something too, you know?”

  She stared up at him beseechingly.

  “Sorry. You’re right,” she hurried on. “Being Sofia is turning me into someone else.”

  A soft, guileless smile touched her lips and she turned her bright cobalt irises on him pleadingly.

  She watched as his face relaxed slightly.

  “Yeah,” he conceded. “The first one is always the hardest.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll have something, I promise. You just need to give me some time.”

  Draggan smiled ruefully.

  “I guess we’re both on edge,” he relented, and Andrea’s face relaxed into a relieved smile.

  “You won’t regret this,” she told him.

  “I hope not, Andrea.”

  Sofia, she thought again but this time, it didn’t cause her any alarm or shame.

  Andrea realized she had grown to like Sofia.

  “Do your check ins,” Draggan told her. “And get back out there. I know you haven’t been going to any of the places we talked about.”

  Andrea nodded very slowly, her mind whirling.

  So, no one has seen me with Marco yet. That’s good…I think.

  “We’ll be in touch but let me know if you learn anything about Valentina.”

  He walked away, leaving her alone in the park to compose her thoughts.

  He’s lying to me. He’s been lying to me from day one, hence the secrecy. Is he really running this alone and if so, why? An operation like this requires a team, especially if there are more undercovers involved.

  Andrea considered finding out who else was on the FBI undercover roster for this operation, but that was not something she could afford to be nosing around in.

  So far, you’ve managed to keep a low profile. You’ve captured Marco’s attention, and because of the way we met, he doesn’t suspect anything. If anything, I am ahead of the game right now.

  The realization put her mind slightly at ease, but it still didn’t clarify what was going on.

  All she knew for sure was that she didn’t know who she could trust.

  I just have to keep shaking the tree until something falls out, she decided. And part of shaking that tree is continuing doing what I’m doing with Marco.

  As if reading her mind, her phone chimed and she felt a familiar fission of pleasure jolt through her body as she saw Marco’s name appear on her screen.

 

  She smiled and typed back a response, her heart still fluttering in her chest.

  You’re okay, Andrea assured herself. You’re just a girl from Virginia who met a guy and is learning about him. It doesn’t matter who’s watching you or what Draggan’s motives are. You are Sofia Morano.

  she replied, tapping her index finger against the phone as she waited for a response.

 

  She stared at the phone in disbelief, blinking.

  If he has a job for me, that will get me in with other members of the family. If I can get in with them, I can get more information about Valentina.

 

  She slipped the cell back into her purse and swiped her palms along the side of her white sundress, adjusting her sunglasses against her face.

  She had an hour to go make up some fake resumes.

  Chapter Nine

  She was already seated in the fashionable dining room when he arrived and Marco had to pause to stare at her stunning form.

  Instantly, his shaft grew hard. He had to shake his head at the response his body had to seeing her sitting at a table, innocently sipping water, oblivious to the battle going on within him.

  Sofia wore a simple, white sundress, her hair falling about her shoulders in an ebony waterfall and even from the space between them, he could see the vividness of her blue eyes.

  He wanted her. Now. Right there.

  Without acknowledging the maître d’ who watched him, Marco strode toward his girl, the heat in his groin rising with each step, the image in his mind of bending her over a table while he pounded into her from behind causing an uncomfortable swelling in his cock.

  Your girl?! Watch out, man. You’re asking for trouble. You know better than to get tangled up with a good girl like her. But his body totally ignored the warning, and Marco worried that his head was starting to ignore it as well.

  “Oh, hey – “she started to say, but she barely had time to finish her sentence before Marco pulled her up, turning her toward the doors of the dining room.

  “Are you leaving, sir?”

  “We’ll be back,” Marco assured him, his voice a low growl as he continued out of the restaurant and toward the parking lot.

  “Marco, what are you doing? Where are we going?”

  He didn’t answer her as he pushed past the valet.

  “Sir, should I get your – “

  He was already out of earshot, leading Sofia along with him.

  “You’re freaking me out,” Sofia told him, but she didn’t struggle. Why, she wasn’t sure, but for some reason, she just knew that she was safe with him, that he wouldn’t hurt her.

  He felt her hand tremble slightly in his grip, but she didn’t pull away from him, or try to turn back. He knew what he would
find when he tasted her, knew the honey against his lips was going to put him over another edge, that much closer to driving him crazy.

  Her mouth is so hot, he thought, his conscience having only a narrow-minded focus right now. And, to make it even harder to get his careening body under control, he knew that he was going to find the same moisture between her legs.

  I’m learning her so well, he thought, tugging her into the isolated parking area and stopping abruptly at his red car. He spun her around so her back pushed up against the driver’s side door.

  Her cobalt eyes widened in surprise, but Marco could see she had been expecting the almost violent motion.

  I shouldn’t let her know what she does to me, he warned himself, but fuck, she’s driving me insane with need for her.

  His hands gripped the creamy skin of her thighs beneath the hem of her short dress, kneading the silky skin there and raising the material higher as his grip slid upwards.

  “You are so damn beautiful,” he ground out. “All I can think about is fucking you.”

  Sofia’s smile widened and she cocked her head to the side, studying his face.

  “You’re a hopeless romantic, I see,” she teased, but her hips ground against him as his palms slid up under her skirt, cupping her ass.

  She was wearing a thong and as his digits made their way between the crack of her cheeks, he felt the flood of heat traveling to her core.

  She needs me just as much as I need her right now, he thought. And therein was the nail in his coffin. If she had been at all reluctant, he would have been able to gain control over his raging libido. But with her body singing an aria beneath his hands, the passion roared through him even harder.

  “You want romance?” he murmured. “I can romance the fuck out of you.”

  Sofia laughed against his lips, her hands resting against his broad shoulders as she ground toward him, her dress rising higher.

  “That sounds hot. Are you going to do it right here in the parking lot?”

  As if to answer her question, he slipped his hand around the front of her, his fingertips teasing against the cleft of her opening beneath the nylon thong. Sofia gasped at the boldness of the move.

  Still, she didn’t try to push him off, in spite of the fact that they were a moment away from being caught by anyone who ventured into the lot.